The Soviet Union has been described by a leading Soviet Sociologist as a "gigantic experiment" for the study of ethnic relations. Not only is this true but the Soviet Union is also an excellent laboratory for the study of demographic patterns. Within the Soviet population, there is wide diversity in demographic behavior and in sociocultural characteristics of subpopulations. In addition, comparison and contrasts of demographic patterns of diverse subpopulations can be made more effectively in one country, with a common set of administrative rules and operational procedures, than in several countries simultaneouslu, where variation in national levels of social and economic development and cultural history as well as in administrative rules and practices often seriously impedes comparability. This project uses data for the Soviet Union 1959-1979 to address questions that are important for understanding both general demographic processes and recent population patterns in the Soviet Union. A major part of this project involves fundamental demographic estimation. Producing improved demographic estimates involves application of standard demographic methods, use of non-traditional data sources, such as school-enrollment data, and the assessment of the robustness of recently-developed techniques both to determine their appropriateness for studying the Soviet population and to contribute to the understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of these methods generally. This work is essential for obtaining indicators of underlying demographic factors and for understanding the magnitude and nature of demographic change among Soviet regions and ethnic groups as well as for the Soviet Union as a whole.